Quetta police arrest children used for bomb blasts

QUETTA, (SANA): Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested a group of terrorists involved in using teenage boys for bomb blasts in parts of Balochistan.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta, Mir Zubair Mehmood, presented before the media 11 handcuffed boys, aged between 10-16, and told reporters that they had been paid by the terrorist for planting explosives at crowded places in different parts of Quetta and Balochistan.

Zuber said hand grenades and detonators were recovered from the children.

The CCPO said members of a banned organization United liberation army who were using these children for terrorist activities have also been arrested in a ‘targeted operation’.

Mir Zubair Mehmood said all accused were children and their ages were between 11 to 18 years. He said all teenagers belong to extremely poor and down-trodden families.

He added that eight militants belonging to a Baloch separatists group managed to escape during the operation.

“Arrested teenagers have confessed to involvement in more than one dozen bomb explosions,” Mehmood said.

He said the teenagers were paid between 2000 to 5000 rupees per blast.

The CCPO stated that children were being used by terrorists to carry out terrorist incidents at crowded locations of Quetta city.

He said the children had admitted to their involvement in Mezan Chowk blast, which left more than a dozen people including three frontier corps personnel dead.

Mehmood said police seized anti personnel mines, explosives and other arms and ammunitions from children’s possessions.
He said that arms and ammunition were also recovered from them. He said that efforts are underway for the arrest of others involved in the terrorist activities. He added that a group of children aged 10 to 16 years used for bomb blasts has also been arrested. He said that three teams have been formed for the arrest of the people who succeeded to flee during the police raid.

At least 12 people lost their lives at Bacha Khan Chowk in Quetta on Jan 10 this year when a bomb went off near a vehicle of the Frontier Corps on the same day that the Alamdar road blast incident took place killing over a hundred people.

The Bacha Khan blast was claimed by the proscribed United Baloch Army as revenge for Mashkay, Awaran and Bolan operations launched by FC. The head of the Kamsan Dosti Group, Sabir is the student of 9th class and son of an honest police officer. The other members of the group include Babar, Niaz, Munir, Amir, Azim, Javed, Faisal and Shaoib. The confessional statements of the arrested youngsters were also aired by a private TV channel.

The youngsters shown regret over their involvement in the bomb blasts in which many people were killed. The arrested vowed to not involve in such activities are this.